How horses recognise humans

[Caroline]

Scientists once again prove the blindingly obvious (to a horse owner!)...

www.equinescienceupdate.com/articles/hhrh.html

[kafee]

Interesting article, thank you for posting it Caroline.

I know my ponies are able to identify me by sight or the sound of my vehicle or voice. Interesting that they identify us quicker when they see us with their right eye, pity we conventionally, approach from the left though!

[wills]

Facinating. Pretty smart for "dumb animals"

Im convinced that they recognise particular footsteps aswell - well atleast some of tbem do

[Catrin]

The brief information is a bit confusing. It mentions "where the horse would look" but doesn't mention "which eye the horse is looking with". Surely this is more relevant as horses process images separately with little left/right hemisphere (right/left eye) overlap.

Also I don't understand the conclusion "processes governed by the left hemisphere are central to the cross-modal matching of visual and auditory information from familiar individuals". Other research, on visual stimulus alone, contradicts this with research that shows that the left–hemisphere/right–eye processes new information. It would be interesting to read the whole article to see what previous research they considered or how they controlled for this.

[shan]

Science - please give me a research job...

[Caroline]

Here is the research paper this article was based on:

rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/279/1741/3131.full.pdf

[Bella]

Wow I also think they recognize footsteps, as soon as she hears mine she shouts and she can't see me.

[Catrin]

Jan 1, 2013 23:55:00 GMT 1 Caroline said:

Here is the research paper this article was based on:

rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/279/1741/3131.full.pdf

Thanks, I shall read and cross–reference.